Comment

Jul 27, 2015DouglasLinn rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
A good book, but certainly not one of Coelho's best. The theme of love is prevalent, and anyone accustomed to Coelho's stories knows that Love is untameable and wild: a force that flows through all from All. However, in this readers heart Love is also, ultimately, just, and I sense no justice upon this novel's conclusion. Perhaps it is an artistic statement on formulaic writing and cinema as the story is set in the very superficial world of glitz and glamour within fashion and cinema, however, upon the conclusion of the story, it seems an unfinished journey that one does not expect from Coelho's writing. It makes me wonder how much pressure he was under to actually write something "different" and what kind of deadlines he was under to write another novel. At the same time, the lackluster style deems some of the secondary characters moot in the form of the Inspector, the detective, and the medical examiner since, ultimately, there discernment and revelations bear no actual progression of the story. It is certainly not the inspiring tale that Coelho usually recites, and I find myself feeling that he deviated from his own heart in it's telling and publication which is precisely what he speaks against in most of his tales. A worthy read, but ultimately anticlimactic.